Friday, February 20, 2015

I've had London on the brain lately (as in I'm trying to figure out when I can go back), so it's probably time I told you about last January when I was there for a whole day and a
half. One reason for the short visit was
that it was planned rather spontaneously, which is out of the ordinary for me,
and one reason for the spontaneity of it was that an exhibition at the Victoria
and Albert Museum was going to be closing soon.
The exhibition was on Pearls, which I couldn’t take any photos of, but I
made up for that in the rest of the museum.

Although, being in the V&A’s costume hall was surprising
in that I wasn’t surprised by any of the costumes. I never thought about it, but after spending
so much time exploring their collection online, and seeing random pieces on
sites like Pinterest, the costumes on display were closer-up than I could see
online, but for no piece was I like “I need to make you immediately”, because I
had seen them all before—and I had completely expected to have that reaction to
at least one piece. But that doesn’t
mean that I didn’t spend my entire first day wandering the V&A, because I
totally did. OMG the jewelry! But of course those galleries didn’t allow
photos either, so you’ll have to settle for a few costume pics and one of
stained glass windows.

These may look familiar:

These, probably not:

My second day was much more surprising. I spent the morning at Kensington Palace,
which I only went to because I was trying to not stray from the Kensington area
to make my mini-trip easier. And it is
the place I’m still recommending to people a year later.

I was up earlier than usual that morning and the sun rising over the park was really beautiful.

There were three main sections to the museum/palace. The first told the story of Victoria and
Albert and had several pieces of clothing on display. In this section, the really fascinating thing, at least
for the museum nerd in me, was how they wove (sometimes literally) passages of
letters and diaries into the rooms: lines of text woven into the carpet, etched along display cases, and painted on the walls. It was really beautiful and made for a fuller picture than some text panel telling me about their relationship.

You can see text on the carpet, the mirror, and the room divider.

This was really sweet. It reads "My dearest Albert put on my stockings for me. I went in and saw him shave; a great delight for me."

Other rooms in this section featured later parts of their lives, and of course more costume pieces:

A riding habit for inspecting the troops:

And some interesting mourning pieces for after Albert died. Of course, being black they proved especially hard to photograph, so I'll just show you an embroidered handkerchief. Every piece had some mark of being for mourning. I had never thought about embroidering a handkerchief or undergarments or anything that is usually white to distinguish it as mourning wear. It's really amazing to me how much time would have been put in to this, and how committed Victoria was to being proper about her grief.

The second exhibition area was in the Queen's State Apartments. Not Queen Victoria, though they may have been hers as well, but the rooms focused on two other queens who resided there: Queen Mary and Queen Anne. I always get this part mixed up, but Mary was the older sister of Anne, and ruled jointly with William (of the Netherlands, so we like him!) until her death, then William ruled on his own for awhile, and finally Anne became queen when he died, as William and Mary had no children.

The exhibits in this area were weird. Like modern, surreal, weird. But very cool at the same time--and not at all what I was expecting. One room had 17 little chairs in it for all the babies Anne had lost. (12 stillborn children, 4 died before the age of 2, and 1 made it to 11 years). I don't have any photos of that room, as it was really saddening to actually see it visualized like that, not just read it on Wikipedia.

Another room focused on gossip in court life, and as you walked through, different phonographs would turn on and you became surrounded by different voices telling different tales of something scandalous happening at court.

And finally, the third section was about more modern Queens and Princesses--gowns that Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, and Princess Diana had worn. Naturally, I didn't like much of Diana's section (too 80's and 90's for my taste), but there were some really lovely pieces from Elizabeth and Margaret.

A lovely blue number worn by Queen Elizabeth in the early 1950's.

A (then) daring dress worn by Princess Margaret to a film premiere in 1951.

And a day dress worn in the early 1950's by Princess Margaret. I just love how delicate this looks.

After Kensington Palace, I had a little time left before I had to catch the train, so I wandered over to the Natural History Museum, and found out that there's a back entrance which looks A LOT different than the front entrance.

This is the back:

Not the usual view of the Natural History Museum, is it? Though riding the escalator up through the glowing world of doom was pretty cool.

Eventually I wandered my way through to the front entrance hall. Which was absolutely stunning.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

This is my last pair of 30's pants for a while, I promise! I just needed one more pair. I'm probably a little addicted to this pattern, these black ones being my third try at the Wearing History pattern.

But black pants! I had no semi-casual black pants, and have been needing a good pair for years. So, one more go.

I made these as a late entry for January's Historical Sew Monthly (previously Fortnightly), the theme of which is foundations. And a good pair of black trousers is a good foundation piece to any wardrobe. I originally intended to make a corded petticoat for this challenge, but that didn't happen.

This pair is obviously like the last two, but this time I added pockets. It was my first time adding pockets to pants, so the opening for my hand turned out a little big, but as big pockets go well with big pants, I'm still pleased with them.

As for the photo shoot, I decided on a park near our house, early in the morning before Dan went to work (as it's dark by the time he gets home), but what I didn't plan for was the snowfall the night before. So I was a little chilly in my sweater and cotton pants. And I was only able to do my leap-frog idea once, as that was absurdly cold for my hands. I look a little deranged, but oh well.

The Challenge: Foundation

Fabric: Black cotton blend that I got for really cheap, but it feels like cotton.

Pattern: Wearing History's Smooth Sailing Trousers

Year: mid to late 1930's

Notions: zipper, hook/bar

How historically accurate is it? For the first time in ages, my fabric isn't completely natural, so points off there, but I still feel this is accurate enough for the 1930's.

Hours to complete: About 9.

First worn: A bit around the house, and for photos, but these will get worn A LOT.